Cash In Hand Payments Will Soar Under Universal Credit

Cash in hand payments are set to soar when Universal Credit, the Government’s flagship new benefits regime, is finally introduced.

Universal Credit is intended to simplify the benefits system and make work pay, but in reality looks likely to be an expensive and bureaucratic shambles. Far from revolutionising the benefits system, Universal Credit will achieve little more than changing a few names and moving around responsibilities. So Housing Benefit is to be renamed ‘Housing Element of Universal Credit’ and will be processed centrally, whilst Council Tax Benefit will be placed in the hands of Local Authorities giving council busy-bodies unprecedented powers to make savage cuts.

This is all to be done the most expensive way possible, as the DWP abandons everything which has gone before and starts from scratch. Yet perversely the new legislation is littered with real cuts to the incomes of those with least, perhaps suggesting the true direction of the policy.

Tax Credits, currently paid to those with children, or who are self employed, will now be processed on a monthly basis. This will create an administration nightmare for both self employed people and small businesses alike. And all benefits will be delivered digitally by default, a move which is set to see Jobcentres closing their door around the UK.

Under this regime a cash in hand economy will thrive as casual workers, and those that employ them, will both have a huge incentives to keep everything off the books.

With no more Jobcentres, the DWP’s key weapon in preventing fraud will be lost. Jobcentres have been known to force people to attend daily to sign on should they have fallen under suspicion of fraud (or even of not trying hard enough). Signing on by smartphone or internet will see the end of Jobcentre’s over-used powers in this area.

What is unknown is what factor human contact plays in whether people accurately report financial circumstances to the DWP. It is far easier to lie to a machine after all. For those who aren’t online at home, it may soon prove too much of a temptation to not declare a couple of days work, something which now is easily accommodated under Working or Child Tax Credits. Accurately reporting small earnings will now mean not only losing some benefit, but also having to trek to an internet cafe and navigate what is set to be the most complex database monitoring citizens ever introduced.

Some employers will no doubt feel the same way and offer cash in hand work to bypass their monthly commitment to report all earnings back to the DWP.

Iain Duncan Smith has claimed Universal Credit will reduce fraud. For those with a criminal mind, a quick glance over the proposed new rules will reveal them to be full of lucrative holes. A benefit fraudster’s charter perhaps. And I’m not going to spoil anyone’s fun by pointing them out. But this only highlights just how much Iain Duncan Smith has overlooked what has gone before with his arrogant zeal to return to year zero.

The benefits system as it currently stands is indeed complex. So complex that Iain Duncan Smith doesn’t understand it (although benefit claimants themselves usually manage to suss it out). One of the reasons for the complexity is because, over the years, it has been butchered to either strip away benefits, or to prevent fraud. As new loopholes have emerged, new sticking plasters have been put in their place. It has been crude, but fraud and error levels have remained surprisingly low at just 2% of expenditure.

Iain Duncan Smith is about to rip up over fifty years of anti-fraud development within the welfare system which is to be replaced with his own crackpot schemes that he came up with after skim reading the Daily Mail. Meanwhile the monstrous snooping IT database which underpins the plans appears to be developing cracks before even getting started.

Chaos will reign and it will be the poorest who suffer as benefits go unpaid, IT systems don’t work and staff are unprepared. Fraud will soar as Universal Credit is bombarded with challenges already beaten under the old system and those yet to be discovered under the new.

That no-one has put the brakes on IDS reveals Cameron’s terror at the prospect of civil war within his own party. Universal Credit couldn’t be better timed for the upcoming shambles to dominate the headlines in the run up to the next election. That a fucking moron like Iain Duncan Smith can be allowed to play havoc with millions of lives may yet prove to be the final undoing of this toff Government.

If the bosses are going to pay cash to avoid the bureaucratic bollocks, does that mean they won’t be able to be so damn picky about references, experience, qualifications, CRB checks..? I hope so! And, presumably, if they do that, then they won’t be able to advertise on the Ministry of Truth’s lousy computer system any more…

Remember years ago everyone was paid their wages in cash! and those without a job had to sign on weekly, then unemployment grew so that they needed to change it to fortnightly and bets on soon they pay benefits monthly like most get their wages

Jobcentre is always telling me to “get a smartfone, everyone has one these days” But everyone is not on £71 a week lol “cos it’s got apps n stuff”. So is everyone going to be signing-on on their smartfone lol What will happen to the signing-on staff? lol

fuck that, we all know how secure smartphones are! Not!
Never mind having to pay three hundred quid to get one, and then be suckered into an eye watering monthly contract with the sort of wankers that sell your private details to all the dodgy scam outfits they can find.

you want a smart fone then go to Tesco Mobile I git one for £7.50 a month lol seriously tho job centre closures have always been on the cards but most of the staff seem to have accepted it without a fight

Tamara – they will be claiming benefits or working for A4E.
Some of them are already working for A4E.
Jobcentres are already closing – so all the benefits will be done by IT clerks in India, and all the sanctions will be applied by workfare providers.
Except the ones who run the prisons – they’ll send the prisoners from their prison contracts to the work in their hospital contracts, just like they do everywhere else.
We are living in frightening times, people.

Ring…ring…ring…ring…ffs…ring…ring..fuck,fuck, fucking fuck…ring…ring… ” My name is “Dave”, how can I ably assist you?” “Hello, my Universal Credit has not been paid for the past 3 years, can you check that my claim is active.” Ring,,,ring…Good day, you are through to the Universal Claims Support Line, My name is “Chris”, how can I ably assist you?” “FFs… Hello, my Universal Credit has not been paid for the past 3 years, can you check that my claim is active.”… “May I suggest that you re-install windows, Sir. Thank you for calling the Universal Credit Support Line. Good day to you, Sir”. Brrrrrr…

It will.end in tears for the hated coalition. This is what they truly deserve for screwing the lives of so.many.scrapping by.
I.was told months ago.the IT system.for the Work Programme was way behind scheudle.
IDS is a thoroughly a horrible man, he along with Paul.Dacre want a return to.the 1950’s but have yetvto find a time machine big enough for their egos while the rest of us will suffer the consquences of another project deskgned to.kill us off, but s
Looking forward to Karma.omehow I.suspect God wants us alive just to piss off the Tories.

I can’t see them closing actual Jobcentres (not because they care about putting peopole out of work of course). Was that ever part of the plan? I thought the whole internet/phone thing was to make the initial claim, as it is now: you can ring up or use t’internet to register a claim (I wouldn’t trust the internet for it mind you). Are they really planning to have people put under less scrutiny when signing?

Today I was given the new signing on form for jobseekers allowance. I no longer have to see a person to sign on just pick up my new form when i come in to drop my filled in worklog form off. I asked what about if i have a problem or need to speak to anyone…….answer you can phone us! Just great…. bye bye jobcenter.

I’m getting on now….in my 60’s ffs,but in the 80’s,fighting the Thatcher regime I put together a social security action group in an unemployed workers’ centre on my own,with an anarchic structure..i.e. no leader but with plenty of advice on how to form a quorum,some general aims and direction,got out the cpag handbook,brushed up on Michael Bakunin and got down to it.
Set up ‘cells’……get some agitprop going. Fight! Even if you lose you can bloody their noses and you’ll always know you DID something. So do it.
You have nothing left to lose. This shower are doing shit that Thatcher only dreamt of in her wettest of dreams.
Get this for some number crunching. The DWP’s own figures put fraud at 0.05% of the budget they have. Okay,so why then do they want to cut 20% of disability benefits ? It doesn’t make sense at all. Even their own figures tell everyone that 95.05% of benefits are honestly claimed,and they are so paltry anyway that the people going through the demeaning process to claim them really couldn’t survive without the money. They’d probably die.
So….what this shower of shit is up to is no more than applied cruelty.
Literally, frightening and terrifying for those affected.
So…..fight.

The High Court is due to rule on whether a jobless graduate’s human rights were breached when she was forced to work for free in Poundland on a work experience scheme.

Cait Reilly, 23, and an unemployed 40-year-old are both challenging the legality of Government work schemes that pay no wages.

Both cases seek the quashing of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) regulations under which the back-to-work schemes were set up.

They are also applying for declarations that there have been violations of article four of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits forced labour and slavery.

The DWP says the schemes – the Community Action Programme and Work Academy Scheme – are not slave labour but play an important part in giving jobseekers the skills and experience they need to find work.

“It is entirely reasonable to ask jobseekers to take real steps towards finding work if they are claiming benefits,” the DWP said in a statement.

A judge at London’s High Court was told by Ms Reilly’s QC that the geology graduate’s stint at the Poundland near her home in Kings Heath, Birmingham, involved her carrying out “unpaid menial work”. This consisted of very basic tasks such as sweeping and shelf-stacking “without training, supervision or remuneration”.

Nathalie Lieven QC submitted to Mr Justice Foskett: “Such work did not contribute to (Ms Reilly’s) search for work to any extent.” The graduate had only participated because she was told the training was mandatory and she risked losing her jobseeker’s allowance or having it reduced if she did not attend.

The second challenge before the court involves Jamieson Wilson, a 40-year-old unemployed HGV driver from the Midlands who has been claiming benefits since 2008.

Ms Lieven said Mr Wilson was told last November he would be required to undertake 30 hours’ unpaid work a week for up to six months cleaning furniture, and further periods of required work could follow. Ms Lieven said Mr Wilson had recently been subjected to sanctions after refusing to take part in the scheme and now apparently faced the loss of jobseeker’s allowance for six months.

“The DWP says the schemes – the Community Action Programme and Work Academy Scheme – are not slave labour but play an important part in giving jobseekers the skills and experience they need to find work.” – ROTFLMAO🙂

With funding being withdrawn from schools/colleges and WP limiting the amount of training they pay for id like to know where these skills are coming from. The goverment say they want a workforce comparable to Europe but are breeding a labour force of dunces. Its odd that we have a high level of immigrants with skills being given(and rightly) the jobs which require their skills, but what about our childrens future. Cameron and the other one need to focus on us as a nation, not every bugger elses problems its time they looked after their own country instead of sticking their noses in others. They can start by not trying to tell us how to run our lives but do what they are paid to do by us, look after our economy lol well thats probably not a good idea anymore either:)

That’s why we send our kids to those State Prisons called “schools” Sarah – to dumb then down, to reduce their aspirations in life to stacking shelves in a supermarket. Did you mistakenly believe there purpose was to educated our kids?

I lectured in an east end college last year and found a significant number of the students couldnt even write properly, one couldnt even read! is this really what we’ve come to?
The highest aspiration was working in a local dairy because they said it paid well………………..no one told them there were other options out there.

reading through all the blogs here today, i am struck by what great minds there are contributing here. What we could achieve if we were working as a group on hard-hitting challenges to this cruel government!

I’m not sure that what the government has in mind is really a form of ‘universal credit.’ Under the type of scheme that I envisage everyone is paid the equivalent of a very basic subsistence wage/income and then are free to earn whatever they are able to on top. There will be no necessity to sign on, inform the authorities of any change of circumstance or even pay any income tax for people on low incomes.

The system we have at the moment where you can be left destitute on the whim of a DWP “decision maker” belongs in the country. Everyone should be at least guaranteed a roof over their head and food in their belly – this is a basic right. But it should go further than that, everyone should be guaranteed a decent standard of living, a standard of living which they feel secure and safe in and can act as an aspirational springboard to greater things. (This is how the well-to-do and the rich get on, they don’t worry about having somewhere to sleep at night and bread on the table.) And also, being able to earn more without having to report every “change of circumstance”. A progressive tax system instead of a regressive one which favours only the rich.

So, a guaranteed decent income for everyone, removal of conditionality on receipt of unemployment benefits, an end to the ridiculous “signing-on” regime, an end to “mandatory” schemes, a complete closure of parasitical money-grabbing “providers”. Isn’t this fair?

I urge you strongly to make the effort and research the c.e.o. of Atos.
This cretin is one of the most reviled men in France,and could well find himself on human rights charges there,in the not too distant future.
Make the effort.
This man IS a Nazi and a friend of ArbeitsMinister I.D. Shmidt…..our homegrown Nazi ratbastard.

He got kicked out of France Telecom because the staff were committing suicide because of his “management techniques” – now he heads fucking ATOS and the disabled of the UK are now committing suicide by the “shedload”.

And before France Telecom we headed Renault where – guess what – the staff were committing suicide because of his – guess what – “management techniques”. Small wonder our own ArbeitsMinister I.D. Shmidt hired this Nazi cunt.

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